Additional Publication Information

Unsightly Aesthetics seeks to address the unconventional ways in which contemporary art is made and engaged with across the vastly expanded networks of new media culture, arguing--counterintuitively--that network culture not only embodies its own version of "situatedness" but can also lead to the creation of a more democratic art, with the Internet acting as a far broader public space than the traditional site-specificity of old, a space in which artists can encounter and perhaps even engender new publics for their work. The book aims to theorize current dynamics in media and sound art practice, and includes interviews and conversations with Barbara Campbell, Linda Carroli, Hugh Davies, Bec Dean, Renate Ferro, John Craig Freeman, Jo-Anne Green, Teri Hoskin, Lucas Ihlein, Yao Jui-Chung, kanarinka (a.k.a. Catherine D'Ignazio), Scott Kildall, Deborah Kelly, Natalie Loveless, Michael Takeo Magruder, Timothy Conway Murray, Norie Neumark, Victoria Scott, Brooke Singer, Igor Štromajer, Helen Thorington and Darren Tofts.

Abstract

During April and May 2011 Teri Hoskin and Lucas Ihlein carried on a correspondence inspired by Ihlein's projects Bilateral Kellerberrin (2005) and Bilateral Petersham (2006) both site-specific residencies blogged live with postevent book and other productions. 1 The dialogue between Teri and Lucas took place within the pages of a small (cut down to-fit-in-an-A5 envelope) notebook, which the two artists posted back and forth. The intention was to facilitate a slow writing that had to practically consider the limits of pen, paper and letter post. Initially, the correspondence was intended to follow a strict weekly turnaround, in orderto facilitate «proper turn-taking.» The reality, however, was that the book often lingered with one or the other for longer than a week at a time. In this way the conversation became multi-layered, taking on the shift between the technics of language, meaning and community.